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Power Your Crowd - NEW Pocketcrowd 1.3 Released - We’ve Integrated Facebook and Twitter to Complement Foursquare and Yelp!

Today we pushed a new Pocketcrowd service release that integrates Facebook and Twitter into Pocketcrowd (www.Pocketcrowd.com) to complement our Foursquare integration and Yelp! listings currently available.

Now you can conduct real time check ins and future check ins simultaneously across all of your favorite social media services including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Yelp!

We’re pumped about this release because we wanted to make Pocketcrowd more powerful for you and easier to use across your social stream. We want you to “Power Your Crowd” with Pocketcrowd.

This release also marks the beginning of a very busy alpha prototype period for the Pocketcrowd team. We’re in an aggressive rapid development period now and we’ll release various updates in the coming months. We’ve got plans for features like calendar/events, mobile client app, social gaming, and real-time data/service integration.

Most importantly, we want to know what YOU think.

Tell us if you see a service glitch or bug, tell us about it on our Facebook Discussion Thread:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=161432063882016&topic=368

Tell us what you’d like to see from the Pocketcrowd service? How can we make Pocketcrowd better help you communicate with your friends? Let us know on  www.Twitter.com/Pocketcrowd, www.Facebook.com/Pocketcrowd, and her on our Tumblr.

Finally, tell your friends about Pocketcrowd! Help us spread the word!

THANKS!

The Pocketcrowd Team

A Preview of What’s Coming Next for Pocketcrowd

• New Services Integrated - Facebook and Twitter are being fully integrated into Pocketcrowd. They will join Foursquare and Yelp! in the Pocketcrowd service. This will be very cool.

• Profiles - Pocketcrowd users will be able to create personalized Pocketcrowd profiles in addition to inviting and making new friends.

• Events - Pocketcrowd users will be able to create unique events at real locations where friends and users can check in to in the real world.  
  

We Want Your Pocketcrowd Alpha Feedback!

The Pocketcrowd alpha is public!

This is what Pocketcrowd looks like on your mobile:

This is what Pocketcrowd looks like on your computer:

Because the Pocketcrowd alpha is public, YOU the public will have the opportunity to direct the app’s development roadmap.  In short, WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK! We want you to tell us how the service works, or doesn’t, and how we can make it better. Share your comments, suggestions, criticisms, etc. We want to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly so we can make the Pocketcrowd app work better for you. 

So here’s what to do:

FIRST, be sure to bookmark http://pocketcrowd.com on your mobile or PC and log in with Foursqaure. Then use Pocketcrowd to do real-time checkins and future checkins. 

SECOND, please share your feedback on the “Pocketcrowd Quality Assurance” thread on our Facebook Discussions Tab at:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=161432063882016&topic=240

We will try our best to incorporate your ideas and respond to your comments as quickly as possible.

THIRD, stay in the loop with the latest Pocketcrowd alpha news by “Liking” Pocketcrowd on Facebook, following Pocketcrowd on Twitter, or following Pocketcrowd on Tumblr. 

THANKS!

The Public Pocketcrowd alpha is LIVE!

The public Pocketcrowd alpha is LIVE!

Our first push for the Pocketcrowd alpha is the launch of our new look and feel with Foursquare and Yelp! integration.

Check it out at:

http://pocketcrowd.com 

and bookmark it on your mobile phone or computer!

In the coming weeks we will integrate Facebook Places. After the Pocketcrowd. Facebook Places testing period is complete, we will integrate Gowalla into Pocketcrowd. Plus we have a few additional surprises in store.

At the end of the alpha, you will be able to access and view most if not all of your location-based social media tools in a single app - Pocketcrowd.

Each step of the way we want your suggestions and comments along with your help in identifying Pocketcrowd bugs, errors, and technical glitches.

When you do encounter one, please post details on our Facebook Discussion tab at:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=161432063882016&topic=240

Let us know what you think either via:

Facebook 

http://www.facebook.com/Pocketcrowd

Twitter

http://twitter.com/Pocketcrowd

Tumblr

http://pocketcrowd.tumblr.com/

Thanks!

The Pocketcrowd Team

Public Pocketcrowd Alpha Launches This Week

We’re excited to announce that the Pocketcrowd app is starting it’s public alpha version this next week. We’ve been very encouraged by the prototype testing and consumer usage that started mid-way through Summer 2010. Plus there has been a numerous major geo-location developments since we started the prototype with Foursquare, the launch of Facebook Places, the rapid rise of “online deals” services and advancements with other apps and services, etc., etc.

It’s early but we are very excited! 

While we can’t share Pocketcrowd alpha details just yet, we can let you know that it will be launched sometime this next week and then updated on an ongoing basis. 

Check out our Facebook page for an exclusive sneak peak image:

http://www.facebook.com/Pocketcrowd

Please note that you the public will have the opportunity to direct the app’s development roadmap during the Pocketcrowd alpha.  In short, WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK! We want you to tell us how it’s working or how to make it better. Share your comments, suggestions, criticisms, etc. We want to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly so we can make the Pocketcrowd app work better for you. 

So here’s what to do:

FIRST, be sure to bookmark http://pocketcrowd.com on your mobile or PC and log in with Foursquare. Then use Pocketcrowd to real time checkin and future checkin.

SECOND, once the Pocketcrowd alpha starts, please share your feedback on the “Pocketcrowd Quality Assurance” thread on our Pocketcrowd Facebook Discussions Page at: http://www.facebook.com/Pocketcrowd?v=app_2373072738. We will try our best to respond to your comments as quickly as possible and incorporate your ideas.

THIRD, stay in the loop with the latest Pocketcrowd alpha news by “Liking” Pocketcrowd on Facebook, following Pocketcrowd on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Pocketcrowd, or following Pocketcrowd on Tumblr at http://pocketcrowd.tumblr.com/.

Stay tuned!!

Not Bragging But I Love It When…

There is a great deal of work going on behind the scenes at Pocketcrowd. It might not always be apparent but it is happening. And we have a lot of cool things in the works including what was mentioned in a recent AboutFoursquare.com post:

• An optional public itinerary page that will show your future checkins
• Exporting your future checkins in RSS and iCal formats
• A robust event model that will allow invitations and attendee tracking

Of course, there are always new things in the works. We’re pumped so stay tuned…

But it’s when you see so-called “small things” work really well that make you scream, “Yes!”

This happened to me last night. I was leaving The Campbell Apartment that’s in Grand Central Station after drinks with a friend. I remembered to check-in via Pocketcrowd. Then I remembered that I had to stop at the Apple Store in Soho to return something on the way home. It takes about 25-30 minutes to get there from Grand Central on the subway. I figured I’d try a future checkin feature and see what happened even though it was my next stop and less that a half an hour away.

After I took care of my return at the Apple Store, I checked my Twitter stream and here’s what I saw:

I was STOAKED to see that I was automatically checked into the Apple Store. But what really got me was that my future checkin (second from top above) had my checkin time listed down to THE MINUTE. My Pocketcrowd message on Foursquare and Twitter was, “I’ll be at the Apple Store 24 minutes from now - via http://pocketcrowd.com.”

Beyond cool. A lot of unheralded work is going into Pocketcrowd. Super kudos to the Dev team for making it happen. I’m not bragging but I love it when I see cool things happen in real time.

Let us know how Pocketcrowd is working for you. Are there things you’d like to see in service’s feature set? Tell your friends to try it out on their mobile phones. We’d love to hear from you and THANKS for using Pocketcrowd!

A Question of Cache

Earlier this week, @CaptainSwallow asked us on Twitter, “how does it sync venues? some missing no way to add…” to which I replied, “Pocketcrowd doesn’t sync venues-you can use @foursquare to add new ones.” Then @CaptainSwallow smartly replied, “how then is the list of venues different in Pocketcrowd than Foursquare?”

Hmmmm…you know what? I noticed that venues displayed differently on Pocketcrowd and Foursquare in my neighborhood a couple of times myself. In each case, I searched on Pocketcrowd for the location, found it, and did the future or immediate checkin.

I asked the dev team why someone might see different venues listed between the services (I’m not a developer). Here is a condensed version their response from a Basecamp thread.

While venue data can be cached for a few hours, cache is keyed off by latitude and longitude, not by a user. As the user moves to a new location and checks in with a new browser page from a personal computer or mobile phone, they will get different set of venues so long as their GPS position moves as well. 

So differences may happen if a computer’s or phone’s web/apps have not updated their cache. This can also be compounded if you are looking at the two services on two different platforms.

In any case, all you need to do if you don’t see a venue is to search for it within Pocketcrowd and it will display if it’s on Foursquare. If the venue is not there, you can add it via Foursquare.

@CaptainSwallow and everyone else, let us know if you have more questions or ideas for making Pocketcrowd a better service. We’d love to hear them. Thanks for using Pocketcrowd!

Facebook Places Launches - Some Early Thoughts

Last night the Pocketcrowd team was split up across the country. We all “watched” the big Facebook Places announcement via twitter and online news coverage as it happened.

Obviously we’re very interested in getting under the hood with a look at the Facebook Places API and seeing what’s what…when it’s available. Then we’ll react accordingly and let you know what we’re thinking and planning.

In the meantime, here are links to a few interesting articles about from last night’s announcement. We’re retweeting our favorite tweets from last night so check our stream at http://twitter.com/Pocketcrowd. Follow us there and on Facebook at http://Facebook.com/Pocketcrowd.

Facebook Places Articles:

http://gigaom.com/2010/08/18/facebook-launches-places-product/

http://social.venturebeat.com/2010/08/18/foursquares-dennis-crowley-still-deciding-on-facebook-places/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitter-publisher-main&utm_campaign=twitter

http://blog.booyah.com/booyah/2010/08/booyahs-incrowd-takes-locationbased-social-games-to-the-next-level-with-facebook-places.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-implications-of-facebooks-places-2010-8

http://aboutfoursquare.com/facebook-launches-places-with-foursquare-as-a-partner/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20014071-36.html

http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20100818/facebook-places-review/

http://www.digidaydaily.com/stories/facebook-places-faces-privacy-concerns/